However, that doesn’t last long. Disease, death, vain self-interest driven human relationships, environment of violence and crime, rat race for money and power, environmental crisis, food and water famines, communication technology converting us into insensitive robots who are mere email-ids and mobile numbers deprived of the warmth of physical contacts and loving interaction with our near and dear ones – all these ultimately reveal that every pursuit in this world unfailingly ends up in mental and physical suffering.

The core of the Buddha’s enlightenment was his confrontation with the suffering intrinsic to existence. Along with the birth of attached consciousness is the birth of suffering. All the four noble truths revealed by the Buddha talk about suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering.

We are told that universe is the creation of God. Why then such an illusory creation of name-and-form? Who we are – illusion or reality? Are we mere quantum interactions on the edges of the universe? What for we are here? And this world of ours, is it really that real as it appears to be? In the infinite expanse of Infinity our earth is not bigger than a dot.

In the words of Neil Alden Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11 who set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969: “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the earth. I put my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very very small.”

This course explores all this and presents fresh spiritual and modern science overviews on the nature of universe – the objective physical reality.

The unfolding mystery of universe makes this exploration all the more necessary.

Gerald I. Schroeder, the author of The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom (Free Press 1997) also feels the same way:

“As a scientist trained at MIT, I was convinced I had the information to exclude Him or is it Her (i.e. a creator) from the grand scheme of life. But with each step forward in the unfolding mystery of cosmos, a subtle but prevailing ingenuity, a contingency kept shining through – a contingency that joins all aspects of existence into a coherent unity. While this coherence does not prove the existence of a Designer, it does call out for interpretation.”

Pedagogy: Pedagogical structure is simple. Three modules (1,2&3) present the course. Each module is divided in unit lessons.

Module 1: Spiritual Perception of Universe

This module presents the spiritual understanding of the universe as revealed by Avatar Meher Baba and by Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Sufi ancient scriptures, avatars, prophets, saints and sages.

Unit 1.1: Questions needing answers

We begin by singing our age old nursery rhyme by Jane Taylor:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
…………
For you never shut an eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

`Though I know not what you are. Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ – what is true with our `little` twinkling star is true with our universe also. We keep on wondering who we are, where we are and how real this abode of ours is. It appears so real – vast and solid – but disappears in our dream and deep sleep states. Obviously, it is not that much real as we think about it. We also keep on wondering why we are here – what for?

Sage Adi Shankaracharya sings in his `Bhaj Govindam’ stotra:

kaate kaantaa kaste putrah
samsaaro.ayamatiiva vichitra
kasya tvam kah kuta aayaatah
tattvam chintaya tadiha bhraatah

Meaning: “Who is your wife? Who is your son? Strange is this samsara. Of whom are you? Where have you come from? Where you are going? Brother, ponder over these truths.” The sage calls for a review and an overview of ourselves, our relationships and our perception of the universe and the world we live in.

Unit 1.2: Brahman, Yoga Maya and the Universe

Brahman Jnana or Spiritual Knowledge points out that the physical universe or the gross world is just a part of the spiritual universe which is constituted by the gross, subtle and mental spheres. And, all these worlds are in the Supreme Self or Paramatma. In the words of Avatar Meher Baba:

“All souls (atmas) were, are and will be in the Over-Soul (Paramatma). Souls (atmas) are all One. All souls are infinite and eternal. They are formless. All souls are One; there is no difference in souls or in their being and existence as souls. (God Speaks, p.1).” There is only a difference in the consciousness of souls. Meher Baba says: “Most souls have experience of the gross sphere (world); some souls have experience of the subtle sphere (world); a few souls have the experience of the mental sphere (world); and a very few souls have experience of the Over-Soul. (God Speaks, p.1).”

Avatars, prophets, saints and sages remind us again and again that this world of ours and that way the entire universe is only an illusion and delusion:

Throughout every moment of our lives, we encounter countless blessings and beauties created for us by Allah: the air we breathe, the varied and impressively lovely sights in nature, the splendid beauty in animals, plants and flowers are all examples of this incontestable fact. They, along with many other wonders of the natural world, all have a powerful impact upon the human soul. Yet there is one important fact about the beauties of this world which needs to be understood by man. As our Lord has revealed in His Book, “the life of this world is just the enjoyment of delusion.” – (Surah Al ‘Imran, 185).

So don’t waste your time trying to fill your cup with water
When you know that there is nothing in this well but wind.
O Hafiz, in this desert, you have fallen victim to your own illusions.
When was a pilgrim’s thirst ever quenched by a mirage?
(Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved: 100 Poems of Hafiz. Translations by Thomas Raine Crowe)

Hindu spiritual scriptures reveal that Sat –Chit- Ananda Brahman or Supreme Self or God is the ultimate reality. In its nirgun niraakaar state it is without any attributes and form while in its sagun saakaar state it is characterized by Asti-Bhati-Priya – Truth-Love-Beauty. This sagun saakaar asti-bhati-priya takes divine form or vigrah and descends in the world as Avatar emanating Prakash (Light) and Prem (Love). Christian scriptures reveal the same truth. Jesus said to Jews:

“You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I AM HE, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:20-24)

Adi Shankaracharya stated: “Brahman Satyam, Jagat mithya; Jeevo Brahmaiva Naa Parah”.

It means: Brahman is Truth, the perceived World is an illusion; the living are no different from Brahman. World or universe is only an imaginary change in name and form of Brahman – `Vivarta’. It is only a superficial appearance while there is no change in reality. Like taking rope as a snake, one Brahman appears in many pratibimbaas (reflections) as pratibhasika satya or imagined truth. Brahman, the Supreme Self, imagined all this as His leela or joyous game and made use of His Yoga-Maya, for His cosmic leela. Avatar Meher Baba calls this cosmic leela as the Whim of God – the urge to know Himself.

Maya or Yoga-Maya usually quoted as “illusion” centered on the fact that we do not experience the environment itself but rather a projection of it created by us. Maya is the principal deity that manifests, perpetuates and governs the illusion and dream of duality in the phenomenal universe. We are like a brief, disturbed `drop’ of water in an unbound ocean.

The goal of enlightenment is to understand this, experience this: to see intuitively that the distinction between the self and the universe is a false dichotomy. The most important way that Maya fools us is with regard to ourselves. We think we are our bodies, our thoughts, our desires, and so forth. But those things are virtual creations of Maya. They seem to be “me” but this is illusion. Actually our awareness, the real “me”, is something else: Brahman.

Brahman is the real truth of our existence: in Brahman we live, move and have our being. “All this is indeed Brahman” the Upanishads – the scriptures that form Vedanta philosophy – declare. The changing world that we see around us can be compared to moving images on a movie screen. Without the unchanging screen in the background, there can be no movie. Similarly, it is the unchanging Brahman – the substratum of existence – in the background of this changing world that gives the world its reality.

Brahman is Supreme Self – pure Sat-Chit-Ananda I AM -consciousness. Sat stands for eternal pure existence, Chit for all inclusive infinite pure consciousness, and Ananda for pure bliss.

Meher Baba explains the relationship between Maya and Brahman in these words:

“How does the false world of finite things come into existence? Why does it exist? It is created by Maya, or the principle of Ignorance. Maya is not illusion; it is the creator of illusion. Maya is not false; it is that which gives false impressions. Maya is not unreal; it is that which makes the real appear unreal and unreal appear real. Maya is not duality; it is that which causes duality.”

“Maya cannot be considered as being finite. A thing becomes finite by being limited by space and time. Maya does not exist in space and cannot be limited by it. Maya cannot be limited in space because space is itself the creation of Maya. Space, with all that it contains, is an illusion and is dependent upon Maya. Maya, however, is in no way dependent upon space. Hence it cannot be finite through any limitations of space. Nor can Maya be finite because of any limitations of time. Though Maya comes to an end in the state of Super Consciousness, it need not be considered finite for that reason. Maya cannot have a beginning or end in time because time itself is a creation of Maya. Any view that makes Maya a happening that takes place at some time and disappears after some time puts Maya in time and not time in Maya. Time is in Maya; Maya is not in time. Time, as well as all happenings in time, is the creation of Maya. Maya is in no way limited by time. Time comes into existence because of Maya and disappears when Maya disappears. God is timeless Reality, thus the realization of God, and the disappearance of Maya, is a timeless act.”
– (Discourses p.384-85)

And:

“Separateness exists only in imagination.”

“When the rays of the sun are made to pass through a prism, they get dispersed and become separate because of refraction. If each of these rays had consciousness, it would consider itself as being separate from the other rays, forgetting entirely that at the source and on the other side of the prism it had no separate existence. In the same way the one Being descends into the domain of Maya and assumes a multiplicity that does not in fact exist. The separateness of individuals does not exist in reality but only in imagination. The one universal Soul imagines separateness in itself and out of this division there arises the thought of “I” and “mine” as opposed to “you” and “yours”. Although the soul is in reality undivided and absolute unity, it appears as being manifold and divided owing to the working of its own imagination. Imagination is not reality.”
– (Discourses p.18)

Unit 1.3: Purpose behind Creation

But why did God create an illusory world? What could be the purpose behind this illusion of a universe? What role Maya had played?

Avatar Meher Baba did explain the purpose behind Creation.

In the infinite expanse of God or Supreme Self-Consciousness or Everything, at a point of Unconsciousness or Nothing, the Word of words – Om or AUM – got activated. The infinite, unconscious and tranquil state of God reverberated with an impulse, the urge to know itself. God was asleep and this `Who am I’, ‘Who am I’ impulse stirred the Unconsciousness. Instantaneously this dream of a universe got created in the form gross, subtle and mental worlds. Supreme Self, delimiting itself in countless name-and-form identities, indulged in this cosmic leela or game of identification and negation: `I am this – ‘no I am not this’ – `I am that’. Ultimately negating the whole world of name-and-form it reverberated with a mighty urge to transcend the limitations of gross, subtle and mental worlds and be one with the Supreme Reality or Supreme Self. Dying as the limited-self (i.e. ‘I am this- I am that’), it became fully awake regaining and resurrecting its true identity as God or Supreme Self or Pure ‘I Am – I Am’ awareness, the Life Eternal.

Meher Baba says:

“Let us now think of one unconscious soul. In the beginning the soul had no impressions (sansakaras) and no consciousness.” … “This infinite, impression less, unconscious tranquil state of the soul reverberated with an impulse which we call the FIRST URGE (the first urge to know itself).
The first urge was latent in Paramatma.” – (God Speaks, p.8)

And:
“The sole purpose of creation is for the soul to enjoy the infinite state of the Oversoul consciously. Although the soul eternally exists in and with the Oversoul in an inviolable unity, it cannot be conscious of this unity independently of creation, which is within the limitations of time. It must therefore evolve consciousness before it can realize its true status and nature as being identical with the infinite Oversoul, which is one without a second.”
– (Discourses, p.223)

Unit: 1.4: Brahmana (God), Atma or `We’ (Soul) and Universe are One

Illusion is illusion, Reality is Reality. Supreme Self, which alone exists, remains unchanged.

Meher Baba says:

“There is nothing to know. Everything is for forgetting. Whatever can be understood is illusion. The highest understanding and the lowest are both illusion. What cannot be understood is Reality. We are what we are. What we were, we are, and what we are, we shall be. If you don’t understand this, it matters little. All that has to be understood is illusion, but if you understand what cannot be understood, then you will know that we were, we are and we shall be. You have to gain that consciousness.

In short, there has been no change in us, nor will there be any. The only difference lies in knowing that we are unaware of what we are – Infinite God and One. We began to understand ourselves differently as separate entities. This thinking of separateness is nothing but illusion. The wonder is that we were One with Infinite God, and today take ourselves as separate from Him. We began to think in terms of individuality – I am sick, I am happy, and so forth. Such understanding will have to be forsaken.” – (Lord Meher, vol.12, p.4164-4165)

“The soul as Soul is infinite – aloof from mind or body – yet owing to ignorance, the soul comes under the sway of the mind and becomes a “thinker,” sometimes identifying itself with the body and sometimes with the mind. From the limited point of view of a person who has not gone beyond the domain of Maya, there are numberless individuals. It seems that there are as many individuals as there are minds and bodies. In fact, there is only one universal Soul, but the individual thinks that he is different from other individuals. The one and the same Soul is ultimately behind the minds of seemingly different individuals, and through them it has the multifarious experiences of duality. The One in the many comes to experience itself as one of the many. This is due to imagination or false thinking.” – (Discourses p. 17)

About the objective universe, Meher Baba says:

“The one Reality includes in itself all existence. It is Everything, but it has Nothing as its shadow.” And: “The manifold evolving universe arises from the mixing of the one Reality and Nothing. It springs out of Nothing when this Nothing is taken against the background of the one Reality. But this should not be taken to mean that the universe is partly the outcome of the one Reality, or that it has an element of Reality. It is an outcome of Nothing and is nothing. It only seems to have existence. Its apparent existence is due to the one Reality, which is as it were, behind the Nothing. When Nothing is added to the one Reality, the result is the manifold and evolving universe.” – (Discourses p.24-25)

Mundaka Upanishad says:

brahmaivedham amritam purastaat brahma
paschaat brahma dakshinahtascha uttarena
adhascha urdhvam cha prasritham
brahmaiva idam vishvam idam varishtham

Brahman is of the nature of immortality and it is present here everywhere. Brahman is in the front, Brahman is in the back, Brahman is in left, Brahman is in right, Brahman is on top and Brahman is on bottom – everything in the world is filled with Brahman which is great and attainable or desirable object.

Taittiriya Upanishad says:

Yena sarvaani bhootaani jaayanthe
Yena jaathaani jeevanthi
Yat pratyabhisamvishanthi
Tad vijijnaasasva tad brahma ithi

That from which all objects have come, that in which all objects exist and that into which all objects merge during destruction – that is to be known, know that to be Brahman.

Chandogya Upanishad says:

Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahman – everything is verily Brahman.

Mahavakyas or the Great Sayings of Upanishads reveal:

Prajnanam Brahman – Awareness or Consciousness is Brahman (Aitareya Upanishad 3.3)

Aham Brahmasmi – I AM Brahman (Brihadaranyak Upanishad 1.4.10).

Prajnanam Brahman means Prajnanam is Brahman. Prajnanam is awareness, consciousness which is pervading the subtlest texture of the cosmos and is present and active everywhere, at all the places, and all the time.

Atma or I AM is the Self, the solitary ever wakeful self-awareness witness of waking (Vaishvanara), dreaming (Taijas) and dreamless sleep (Prajna) states. It is Turiya – the one that transcends all. Mandukya Upanishad, explaining the sacred syllable AUM, describes this comprehensively:

The Fourth Aspect is Turiya: The fourth aspect of Atman or Self is Turiya, literally the fourth. In this fourth state, consciousness is neither turned outward nor inward. Nor is it both outward and inward; it is beyond both cognition and the absence of cognition. This fourth state of Turiya cannot be experienced through the senses or known by comparison, deductive reasoning or inference; it is indescribable, incomprehensible, and unthinkable with the mind. This is Pure Consciousness itself. This is the real Self. It is within the cessation of all phenomena. It is serene, tranquil, filled with bliss, and is one without second. This is the real or true Self that is to be realized.

Krishna says: “I AM the Goal, the Supporter, the Lord, the Witness, the Abode, the Shelter, the Friend, the Origin, the Dissolution, the Foundation, the Treasure-house and the Seed Imperishable.” – (Bhagawad Geeta IX/18)

And: “I AM the Self, O Gudakesh, seated in the hearts of all beings; I AM the Beginning, the Middle and also the End of all beings.”
– (Bhagawad Geeta X/20)

Sufi faqirs dance and shout in ecstasy ‘Anal-Haq, Anal-Haq’ (I AM God/I AM the Truth). Mansur Al-Hallaj was a famous Sufi of the 10th Century who was executed (hung by the neck) in 922 AD for having stated: “Anal Haq” which means “I AM the Truth”. The orthodox Ulema considered this as blasphemy, thinking that he was claiming to be God himself, whereas he was only proclaiming in a state of sublime spiritual ecstasy, a total annihilation of ‘self’ (his ego) and his oneness with I AM the Truth.

“I AM that I AM – ehyeh-aser-ehyeh – was God’s response when Moses asked for His name (Hebrew Bible).” “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh (often contracted in English “I AM”) is one of the Seven Names of God accorded special care by medieval Jewish tradition. “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM. (John 8:58)”

. Brahman is the Ultimate, Supreme Reality. Brahman is eternal. Brahman cannot be described completely. Atman is the inmost Self or Spirit but different from `empirical ego’. Atman is the fundamental, ultimate, eternal, immutable pure consciousness. Brahman is the ultimate reality behind all world-objects and Atman is pure spirit in all beings. Truly speaking Brahman and Atman are one – just two different labels for one and the same reality behind everything.

Universe, this spectacle of name and forms, is deceptive. Buddha says:
Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle ….
Nothing is as it appears.

Pure I AM-I AM Awareness is Buddha’s `Suchness’.

Seeds that manifest as body and mind,
As realms of being, stages, and worlds,
Are all stored in our consciousness.
That is why it is called “store.” (Verse 3)
Meditating on the nature of interdependence,
Transform delusion into enlightenment,
Samsara and Suchness are not two,
They are one and the same(Verse 41)
Nothing is born, nothing dies
Nothing to hold on to, nothing to release
Samsara is nirvana
There is nothing attain. (Verse 49)

Adi Shankaracharya says in his Nirvana Shatkam:

Aham Nirvikalpa Nirakara Roopah
Vibhur Vyapya Sarvatra Sarvendriyanam
Sada Mey Samatvam Na Muktir Na Bandhah
Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham

I AM free from changes, and lack all the qualities and form. I envelope all forms from all sides and am beyond the sense-organs. I AM always in the state of equality — there is no liberation (Mukti) or captivity (Bandha). I AM the eternal happiness or bliss state, I AM Shiv, I AM Shiv.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Avadhuta Gita prefer negation ‘Neti-Neti’ or ‘Not this-Not this’ i.e. Brahman or I AM is neither ‘this’ nor ‘that’ as the only way to come out of the trap of Maya. Multifarious perception of Universe or Creation leads us to Supreme Reality by getting itself negated. The doctrine of ‘Neti-Neti’ of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad suggests the indescribability of Brahman, the Absolute. It is possible to describe Brahman what it is not but not as to what it is.

Avadhuta Gita says:

Tattvamasyaadi vaakyena svaatma hi pratipaaditah
Neti Neti srutir bruyaat anrutam Pancha Boutikam 25

By the great Tattvaas such as ‘That Thou Art’ your own Self is affirmed. Of all that which is untrue and composed of the five elements, the Sruti says Neti-Neti or Not this- Not that.

Aatmanyevaatmana sarvam tvaya purnam nirantaram
dhyata dhyaanam na te chittam nirlajjam dhyaayate katham 26

As the Self (I AM) is filled only by the Self (I AM) alone, so is all continuously filled by you. There is no Meditator or Meditation. Why does your mind meditate shamelessly?

Thus, Brahman or Supreme Self or I AM Super Consciousness alone is. Separateness is illusory. Every part or state of universe is an all inclusive Whole or Brahman or Supreme Self or I AM Super Consciousness.

Upanishads express this in the form of a Mantra:

Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnam-Idam Puurnnat-Purnnam-Udachyate
Puurnnashya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate

Om That is Full, This also is Full,
From Fullness Comes that Fullness,
Taking Fullness from Fullness,
Fullness Indeed Remains.

Unit 1.5: Universe is one with Supreme Infinite Intelligence

Universe is illusion, if perceived as a domain of discrete name-form formations. Universe is Supreme Being or Supreme Reality itself, if seen as the manifestation of the One as many. Zen Masters have put this most beautifully:

Learning to believe that the universe is alive, conscious, and aware and, more particularly, aware of each of us, can change your experience of life. It can change your relationship with the Universe in a way that will find you living in a brand-new-world – one that will delight you as long as you are on the planet.

Not only is the Universe aware of us, but it also communicates with us. We, in turn, are constantly in communication with the Universe through our words, thoughts, and actions. The Universe responds with events.

Events are the language of the Universe.
And:

The Universe always strikes at your weakest
point because that’s what most needs
strengthening.
You, as part of the Universe, are cared for as if
you were a precious jewel, which you are.
A personal philosophy that’s based on what’s
true in the Universe will sustain you through
every occurrence that life brings to you.
(From: Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss, Wisdom Tree 2008)

Module 2: Spiritual Convergence of Modern Science

Something unprecedented is happening in the domain of modern science at the fundamental level. It is converging more and more towards the spiritual world-view.

Unit 2.1: Superior Spirit behind Harmony of Natural Law

Famous physicist and noble laureate Albert Einstein had said that the Universe is full of supremely superior intelligence:

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

And:

“The scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

– Quotes from: The Quotable Einstein, Princeton Univ. Press.

The following is from Einstein and Religion by Max Jammer, Princeton University Press:

“I’m not an atheist, and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations.”

Albert Einstein also said:

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest – a kind of delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
– quoted by H. Eves in ‘Mathematical Circles Adieu’, Boston 1977.

And:
“Science without religion is lame: Religion without science is blind.”

In the early 20th century, new patterns were added to the fabric of the universe: Quantum Mechanics, the Uncertainty Principle and Relativity, to name a few. The old mechanistic, deterministic view of the universe was shattered forever. A new model of universe took over and replaced it.

Much has changed in the science of physics with publications of David Bohm, Dennis Gabor, Karl Pribram, John S. Bell, Neil Bohr, Rupert Sheldrake, James Watson, Jack Sarfatti, Ken Wilber, David Peat, Illya Prigogine, Lawrence N. Rothenberg, Dominique Loye, Fritjof Capra, John Eccles etc. adding to our information and inspiration. Newtonian physics encouraged science to focus on the study of the physical world. Now, as theories have developed on relativity, the electromagnetic theory, the particle theory, and quantum physics, we can better see the connection between scientific objective descriptions of our world and the world of subjective human experience.

The present scientific view of reality currently supports the idea that we are composed of energy fields and presents a holographic view of our universe. In this universe all things are interconnected.

Unit 2.2: Building blocks of Matter are like Musical Notes

In the domain of modern physics some very exciting theories have been proposed to explain the `reality’ of our universe. One such theory is the String Theory. Think of a guitar string that has been tuned by stretching the string under tension across the guitar. Depending on how the string is plucked and how much tension is in the string, different musical notes will be created by the string. These musical notes could be said to be excitation modes of that guitar string under tension.

In a similar manner, in string theory, the elementary particles we observe in particle accelerators could be thought of as the “musical notes” or excitation modes of elementary strings.

In string theory, as in guitar playing, the string must be stretched under tension in order to become excited. However, the strings in string theory are floating in space-time; they aren’t tied down to a guitar. Nonetheless, they have tension.

2.3: Universe is like a splendid Hologram

David Bohm, eminent physicist and the author of Wholeness and the Implicate Order, says:

“The so-called empty space in the universe contains an immense background of energy. Matter, as we know it, is just a small quantized wave-like excitation on top of the background, rather like a tiny ripple on a vast sea.”

In mid-1960’s a powerful technology was developed HOLOGRAPHY, in which the interference of patterns of twin laser beams create `realistic’ 3-Dimensional images. University of London quantum physicist David Bohm encountered Holography for the first time. He was electrified: here at last was a new process to model our understanding of the universe – THE UNIVERSE IS LIKE A HOLOGRAM.

In his book The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot explains the origin of holographic model in the work of Bohm dissatisfied with the standard theories’ inability to explain all the phenomena encountered in quantum physics, and, the work of Karl Pribram, a neuro-physiologist of Stanford University, who was likewise dissatisfied with the standard theories to explain neuro-physiological puzzles like for instance the apparent NON-LOCAL existence of memory within the brain.

Prior to the work of Pribram, it was generally assumed that specific memories had specific locations somewhere within the brain tissues called engrams. For example a rat trained to run a maze would have an engram of the maze in its brain; find that engram and cut it out, and the rat should become lost. But a series of experiments conducted by Karl Lashley (Pribram’s mentor) of the Yerkes Laboratory of Primate Biology demonstrated this was not so: the rat brains could be sliced, diced, shuffled and fricasseed – yet the rats still could navigate the maze.

To Pribram, the only explanation was that the memories were NOT located at specific sites within the brain, but were somehow spread out or distributed throughout the brain.

Pribram knew of no process or mechanism that could account for such a state of affairs – until he encountered holography. Just as one fragment of a hologram can create the entire holographic image (however, with less detail and lower resolution), so too can one fragment of brain remember the contents of the brain as a whole. THE BRAIN IS LIKE A HOLOGRAM.

And that is the thesis of Stanislav Grof’s book The Holotropic Mind. Grof is widely known as the father of transpersonal psychology – the idea that a person’s psyche is not necessarily limited to his brain. Under the right conditions (e.g. psychotropic drugs or holotropic breath work Transcendental Meditation) a person can experience “transpersonal” states of consciousness, and think the thoughts of other people, past lives, plants and animals, the planet itself or even the entire cosmos.

In 1982 at the University of Paris, a research team led by Alain Aspect discovered that under certain circumstances sub-atomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of distance separating them. It doesn’t matter whether they are 10 ft or 10 billion miles apart. This discovery violates Einstein’s tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light, as this breaks the time barrier. David Bohm believes that Aspect’s findings imply that objective reality does not exist; despite its apparent solidity, the universe is at its heart a phantasm – a gigantic and splendidly detailed Hologram.

The holographic universe proves that the physical world we believe as real is in fact illusion. Energy fields are decoded by our brains into a 3D picture to give the illusion of a physical world. Look at it this way, things that appear to be solid like your chair, bed, computer etc. are made of atoms that are in fact virtually void, empty, yet the object appears to be solid. The same way things that appear to be “out there” just appear so because they are empty images in our mind.

String theory provides an elegant description of the universe by adding additional dimensions. But some other theoreticians think they have found a way to view the universe as having one less dimension. The work sprung out of a long argument with Stephen Hawking about the nature of black holes, which was eventually solved by the realization that a black hole’s event horizon could act as a hologram, preserving information about the material that’s gotten sucked inside.

The same sort of math, it turns out, can actually describe any point in the universe meaning that the entire content of universe can be viewed as a giant hologram – one that resides on the surface of the whatever two-dimensional shape will enclose it. Berkeley’s Raphael Bousso described how these ideas were explored out to encompass the Universe as a Whole.

As he put it, the math that describes how much information a surface can store works just as well if you get rid of the black hole and event horizon. Any surface that encloses an area of space in this universe has sufficient capacity to describe its contents. As something falls into a black hole, passing the event horizon, the quantum information held in the event horizon can be encoded to reveal information about the interior.

Therefore, the information inside the black hole’s event horizon is not destroyed. If the information about the interior of a black hole is encoded in its event horizon, scientists have come forward to point out that perhaps the information inside our universe is encoded in the universe’s horizon –the limit of the observable universe some 13.7 billion light years away. If the information is coded in the horizon of our universe, could it be that everything within this boundary is simply a holographic projection of this outer “shell.”

All this comes out to the basic idea: the universe can be described using a hologram. The work on the quantum properties of black holes culminated in the last decade and it suggests remarkably that all we experience is nothing but a holographic projection of processes taking place on some distant surface that surrounds us. You can pinch yourself and what you feel will be real, but it mirrors a parallel process taking place in a different distant reality.

Unit 2.4: Triumvirate of Matter, Energy & Information

Ask anybody what the physical world is made of, and you are likely to be told “matter and energy”. Yet if we have learnt anything from engineering, biology and physics, information is just as crucial an ingredient. A robot at the automobile industry is supplied with metal and plastic but can make nothing useful without copious instructions telling it which part to weld to what and so on.

A ribosome in a living cell in spite of amino-acids and ATP molecules around cannot synthesize proteins without the information brought to it from DNA in the cell nucleus. A century of developments in biology and physics, has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes. By studying the mysterious properties of black holes, physicists have deduced absolute limits on how much information a region of space or a quantity of matter and energy can hold.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that our universe which we perceive to have three spatial dimensions is perhaps “written” on a two-dimensional surface, like a hologram. Our every day perceptions of the world as three-dimensional would then be either a profound illusion or merely one of two alternative ways of viewing reality. Even a black hole appears to be a part of cosmic illusion.

Abhas Mitra, eminent theoretical physicist, had questioned the very existence of black holes. According to Mitra, Einstein’s general theory of relativity prohibits both the formation and the existence of (finite mass) black holes.

Unit 2.5: Universe is a Consciousness Hologram

The universe is a consciousness hologram. Reality is projected illusion within the hologram. It is a virtual experiment created in linear time to study emotions. Our hologram is composed of grids created by a source consciousness brought into awareness by electromagnetic energy at the physical level. The hologram is created and linked through a web or grid matrixes based on the patterns of Sacred Geometry.

The hologram had a beginning and it has an end, as consciousness evolves in the alchemy of time. As the grids collapse, everything within the hologram will end. In media we find films, television shows, books, and games, based on the concept of a hologram. Among the more easily recognized are Matrix (Illusion), The Thirteenth Floor (Simulation), Inception (Dream), the Holodeck (Grids) in the TV serial Star Trek, Second Life an internet game and The Holographic Universe, a 1991 book by Michael Talbot.

And this may amaze many that the Digital Production Company, in near future, is all set to make late Elvis Presley come `alive’ on stage. The ‘King of Rock n Roll’ Elvis Presley will be brought alive on a stage in a hologram image. This virtual image of the late singer would be created for a range of entertainment projects.

Unit 2.6: Quantum Mysticism

Quantum Mysticism is a term used rather derogatively by those who discount the idea that quantum physics supports mystical beliefs. There are respected physicists who support this idea. What this idea means is that consciousness is a fundamental part of universe, just like space, time and energy. The basis for this is discoveries and new interpretations of quantum physics.

The eminent American physicist John A. Wheeler put forth the idea of the Participating Anthropic Principle, which states that a conscious observer influences the outcome of an experiment. That would mean that in this “participatory universe” consciousness is the main driving factor of creation. Barrow and Tipler, supporting the idea, go so far as to say: “Observers are necessary to bring the universe into being.”

And, John A. Wheeler says: “I do take 100 percent seriously the idea that the universe is a figment of the imagination.”

Unit 2.7: Bose-Einstein Condensate

What kind of physical structure could possibly be associated with consciousness? It is argued, taking in view the unity and complexity of states of consciousness, that no classical physical system could play the role. Among quantum systems a Bose-Einstein Condensate has the right properties. The brain probably contains one and only one system of this kind – a pumped phonon system described by Froehlich – which is hypothesized to be the substrate of human consciousness.

A phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter. A Bose-Einstein Condensate is the equivalent of a laser; except that it is the atoms, rather than the photons, that behave identically. Its atoms behave like they were a single atom. Technically speaking as temperature drops each atom’s wavelength grows; until the waves of all the atoms begin to overlap and eventually merge.

After they merged, the atoms are located within the same region in space, they travel at the same speed, and they vibrate at the same frequency: they become indistinguishable. The atoms have reached the lowest possible energy called “zero-point” energy, the minimum energy an atom can have.

The intriguing feature of a Bose-Einstein Condensate is that the many parts of a system not only behave as a whole, they become whole. Their identities merge in such a way that they lose their identity: illusory entities interacting in illusory ways, and, ultimately losing their illusory identities in the ever existing eternal pure consciousness.

Unit 2.8: Dreaming and Quantum Physics

We now understand that matter can exhibit both wave and particle properties. And that measurement or observation of matter causes a `wave-function collapse’, resulting in an actual sharply well-defined outcome. Some speculate that the reason why observation causes the wave-function collapse is because a feature of observation is “conscious awareness.”

Perhaps then the dream exists in wave-form until we consciously observe it, through lucid dreaming. And then the lucid dream, unlike an ordinary dream, becomes a definite outcome rather similar to physical reality. This might mean that the lucid dream is actually as ‘real’ as the waking world. One can also say that the waking world is as `real’ as the lucid dream.

Unit 2.9: God Particle Higgs Boson

Diagram given as below summarizes the tree-level interactions between elementary particles described in the Standard Model. Vertices represent types of particles, and edges connecting them represent interactions that can take place.

The organization of the diagram is as follows: the top row of vertices (leptons and quarks) are the matter particles; the second row of vertices (photon, W/Z, gluons) are the force mediating particles; and the bottom row is the Higgs boson.

July 4, 2012 was the day when after decades of hard work and spending billions of dollars, researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have announced that they have gathered enough evidence to show that the “God particle ” answering fundamental questions about the universe almost certainly does exist.

The focus of the excitement is the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle long sought by physicists. Two teams of about 3000 physicists each – one named Atlas, led by Fabiola Gianotti and the other CMS, led by Dr. Incandela – operated giant detectors in the collider sorting the debris from the primordial fireballs left after proton collisions. Protons are present in the nuclei of atoms, the basic unit of matter and are composed of even smaller particles: three quarks held together by massive gluons. In the collider the protons are accelerated at 99.99999991% of the speed of light. Quarks and gluons inside the proton collide and explode with enough energy to create Higgs particle.

For particle physicists, finding the Higgs boson is a key to confirming the standard model of physics that explains what gives mass to matter and, by extension, how the universe was formed.

The existence of the Higgs boson is predicted by the Standard Model to explain how spontaneous breaking of electroweak symmetry takes place in nature, which in turn explains why other elementary particles have mass.

Higgs boson is supposed to have originated a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang created the universe. Boson, one of the two (other is fermion) fundamental classes of subatomic particles, is named after Satyendra Nath Bose who preceded Higgs. Noble winning physicist Leo Lederman unwittingly named Higgs boson as `God Particle` though he wanted to call it `Goddamn Particle.’

Theoretically visualized some fifty years ago, frantic chase of Higgs boson has led to a serious scientific and spiritual dialogue.

Richard Gerber in ‘God Particle the Movie’ says: “Consciousness is the stone that creates the waves in a sea of nothing.” Richard had talked about the “Death of Particle Physics” and the birth of “Intangics”.

Physics is focused on the tangible giving rise to intangible and resulting appearances. Intangics is based on the intangible giving rise to the tangible and the underlying framework that gives rise to appearances.

Richard puts the view “that there are no particles in the universe, only the appearance of particles.” Richard had asked, “Considering the wave nature of the universe why we are looking for the particles?”

Deepak Chopra, author of ‘War of World Views’ says:

“If you went to church in the 18th century, you would have heard God described as a celestial clockmaker who had wound up the universe and left it to run itself. Today, the wind-up is the Big Bang and the clock’s parts are subatomic particles. But the problem of creating matter out of emptiness remains the same.

“How does matter form from the immaterial? What gives particles their mass, and how do they stick together? The physicists at the CERN facility in Europe are busy using the massive multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider to try to answer those questions by hunting for the elusive Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle”.”

And: “The excitement over finding the Higgs particle is that physical science will have uncovered the mechanism for how the tangible world arises from the intangible. That’s as close to the divine act of creation as physics can get. Yet there’s an irony in basing the solid physical universe on nothing. Could this in fact be where materialism destroys itself from within? The Higgs boson may be the key to unlocking the mystery of creation by affirming very different things than materialism dreams of.

“Assuming that the particle allows itself to be discovered, the second step is the exploration of the invisible domain. It is literally nothing, yet everything comes out of it.”

Rohini Godbole, a particle physicist at the CERN, rightly points out:

“For any particle physicist who has been Higgs-hunting for the last 30 years, this was like a dream come true. …Now the particle has been found, what next? Now we have to look at how to establish this discovery, what future pathways towards the truth it will lead us to. (The Times of India, 7 July 2012).”
Unit 2.10: Holographic Universe and Spiritual Evolution

Mary Sutherland is an eminent scholar and interpreter of what she calls as `Philosophical Anthropology’ – a discipline that seeks to unite the several empirical investigations of human nature in an effort to understand individuals as both creatures of their environment and creators of their own values. She makes us aware of our gradual transformation from Homo sapiens to Homo luminous.

Under the caption `The Holographic Universe & Our Spiritual Evolution’ Mary Sutherland (2006) describes:

In the beginning was Thought.

Thought (I am) materializes (reality) on this planet as vibrating light (hologram) brought in through an electrical frequency (vibration/sound).
Thus what we `see or think’ of as a solid reality is a hologram created through `thought’, `light’ and sound .
Everything in this material world is here because our Higher Light Frequency of Self has called them into being.
Each frequency of your thought or word spoken is coded to materialize in the visible realm.
Thus the holographic projection is merely an extension or expression of your Higher Vibratory Self on a slower or denser vibration.
However, it is coded for manifestation for only a period in what we call `time’ and this time it must either loose or speed up its vibration.

Death: What we call ‘death’ is your Higher Self terminating the signal that creates the 3D Hologram and what happens during that time, can be compared to your turning off your television set.

The shows you were watching are still playing, you are still you continuing with other things, but the signal from the remote control has been interrupted and the connection has been temporarily lost.

We Are Not Alone

Although, at times, it may seem like it, we are not alone. Far from it. Actually, we are ‘One’ of the ‘All that Is’.

We are a ‘Collective Consciousness of Everything Created’. Our particles instantaneously communicate with one another regardless of distance. Whether we are ten feet or ten billion miles apart, somehow each particle ‘always’ seems to know what the other is doing. All information is possessed by the ‘Whole’ and although we ‘think’ we are separate from this whole, we are not.

Separation is an illusion – this ‘Whole’ or ‘All that is’ CANNOT be separated. All things in the universe are infinitely interconnected. All nature is ultimately a seamless web. At its deeper level, reality is – in itself – sort of a super-hologram in which the past, present and future all exist simultaneously.

It must be seen as a sort of cosmic storehouse of ‘All That Is’.

Keith Floyd, psychologist, in Holographic Paradigm states: “If reality is nothing but a holographic illusion, then the brain does not produce consciousness. Rather it is consciousness that creates the `appearance’ of the brain as well as the body and everything else that we interpret as physical.”
Module 3: Illusion sustaining Reality

Unit 3.1: Creation is Divine Incubator

Avatar Meher Baba dedicated `GOD SPEAKS’ (a book dictated by him on an alphabet board):
To the Universe – the Illusion that sustains Reality.

Meher Baba says universe or creation is a Divine Incubator. Short of I AM or God Consciousness all other intermediary states are part of cosmic illusion.

Meher Baba explains:

“All these intermediary illusory states of God thrive in the illusion of cosmic Creation through multifarious and diverse gross, subtle and mental impressions of illusion; and though the entire cosmic Creation is illusion, yet it serves the purpose of a divine incubator, where consciousness of the Divine incubates, and where such incubation produces maturity to realize the eternal Reality after the consciousness is nurtured and progressively developed through multifarious, diverse and finite impressions and experiences of the opposites of the gross, subtle and mental forms and worlds of the cosmic creation.” – (God Speaks, p.143).

Our experience of the opposites ultimately and inevitably culminates in unbearable suffering. Deluded by desires we foolishly chase the shadows and try to hold them. Suffering pushes us to search the ultimate Reality and our own reality. We discover intellectually that we and Supreme Reality are One. Right now we are only `desiring individualities` – `I am this – I am that: I want this – I want that ` syndromes. Forgetting our old lives and dying as `desiring individuality’ we eventually, by the Grace of the Avatar of the Age or a Perfect Master, enter the infinite domain of Sat-Chit-Ananda Supreme Self– the Life Eternal. That indeed is our resurrection. Surging with Divine Love, we see our own supreme Self, here, there and everywhere – I AM in all and I AM as all.

In the words of Allen L. Roland PhD, author of `Conscious Love: The Ultimate Energy’:
The basic underlying and uniting force of the universe is a psychic energy field of love and soul consciousness (the Unified Field) which lies not only beyond time and space but ALSO beneath our deepest fears.

Christian scriptures tell us about the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Savior swallowed up death. He showed the illusory nature of this material world and everything which is in it, including death. He transformed himself into an immortal being through the power of his Father – God. He was lifted up from mortal existence, which is lifeless death, to divine existence, which is Deathless Life. He swallowed up the illusions of mortality to show us the hidden Way – the way of Love – to Immortality and Eternal Life.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Buddha says: “The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings.”

Prophet Mohammad says:
“Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”
“God is One, and liketh unity.”

Meher Baba, Avatar of the Age, says:
“It is for love that the whole universe sprang into existence, and it is for the sake of love it is kept going. God descends into the realm of Illusion because the apparent duality of the Beloved and the lover is eventually contributory to His conscious enjoyment of His own divinity.” – (Discourses p.115-116)

Enjoy these:
YOU ALONE EXIST

You Alone Exist Prayer by Meher Baba and Bhau Kalchuri describing the infinite nature of God. Images of Meher Baba, the God-Man, Music by Jim Meyer, Directed by Peter Nordeen.
ALL ARE ONE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tswB3eYyB5w

The words of the song inspired by the words of Sri Ramakrishna the 19th century perfect master from Bengal. The theme is a universal idea that permeates many mystical poems, God is everywhere and everything! The music and lyric adaptation is by Mischa Rutenberg and offered to Beloved Meher Baba.
Our Sufi brother from Northern California, Mischa Rutenberg, has created a new music video ‘All Are One’. Enjoy how Mischa Rutenberg is able to set pure delight and joy to music as only Mischa can do!

THE ILLUSION OF REALITY~CONSCIOUSNESS & QUANTUM THEORY

All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. We are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is a dream, and we’re the imagination of ourselves.”~ Bill Hicks

www.globalone.tv/xn/detail/3026128:Video:182916

There is an element of truth in the criticism but it doesn’t answer the basic question: who started the guessing game to begin with. You may not like DMK supremo, whose forte has always been to be on the side of ruling party in Delhi – right from Indira Gandhi’s days. As the BJP yesterday and the Congress today knows, the film script- writer turned politician has been the least troublesome ally.

If the Congress finds itself on the wrong side of Karunanidhi, it has to blame itself. The GOP in its excessive exuberance with Geneva gymnastics has forgotten the Raj Dharma of coalition politics which inter alia means taking the DMK on board the strategies for Geneva right from the word go.

Consultations with DMK chief, when he had already made up his mind to go his own way is not the way to respect the sentiments and concerns of a senior ally. More so when he had taken great political risk and went along with Delhi on the final phase of Vanni war that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had waged.

India was aware that the Rajapaksa war was the most ruthless and brutal campaign. And the way men and women and children in hospitals and camps in the so called no fire zones were killed often without a warning shot. Quibbling over how to describe such a targeted killing shows a mindset that does no credit to the democratic ethos of this country.

The war footage that has been surfacing with unfailing regularity these past four years clearly establishes the gruesome nature of the campaign carried out by President Rajapaksa. He is now unwilling to yield an inch of power politics to the Tamils in his country. Historically speaking, all Tamils are not a British import into the island for indentured labour. They trace their roots to 2nd century BC and the North and Eastern regions have always been Tamil turf.

The point is the Congress is to blame itself for the DMK going its own way. The crowning glory of the saga is, of course, the CBI raid on the houses of the son and grandson of Karunanidhi, which as one gathers, had the full knowledge of the powers that be.

Both Mulayam Singh and Mayawati are hunted by CBI, though they have been the crutches on which the Manmohan sarkar survives. This is either rank foolishness or absolute arrogance of power. Also terming them as unpredictable allies, and courting a Nitish Kumar in full public view.

Such acts are inevitable when the government, which swears by ‘aam aadmi’, allows itself to be guided and led by bureaucrats for whom with honourable exceptions, increments, promotions and post-retirement rehabilitation alone matter. Probably in no dispensation since independence have the bureaucrats have such an upper hand as in the UPA –I and II.

Nitish has no reason to go with the Congress in Bihar. With just 8.38 per cent share of popular vote, which is spread across the state, the Congress is no asset even to Lalu Prasad Yadav. The RJD leader had famously said once in the not too distant past that leaving a seat in Bihar to the Congress was as good as losing it.

Yes, Nitish can accept a deal with the Congress provided it is modelled on TN pattern – Congress leaving the field open to him in the assembly in return for a major share in the Lok Sabha seats. Such deal will mean acknowledging that Rahul Gandhi has failed in his mission in Bihar and by extension in UP as well.

The Congress ideologues like Digvijay Singh may not like such route for power nirvana on the Raisina Hill. They had criticised PV Narasimha Rao when he tried to follow Indira-MGR model of seat sharing in UP with Kanshiram’s BSP. Rahul Gandhi has often echoed the same view.

Sharad Pawar, whatever be his other failings, saw merit in the PV plan at the end of 1994 and worked closely with him to give shape to Cong-BSP alliance. In the decade plus since then, PV has been proved right as the Congress fortunes have refused to look up in Uttar Pradesh that sends the largest number of lawmakers to Parliament.

Today, Pawar is in a wait and watch mode, like Mulayam Singh Yadav. Neither is playing brinkmanship politics as Delhi’s rootless wonders think. Mulayam’s praise of LK Advani or his senior colleague Ram Gopal Yadav’s comment that corruption was less in NDA regime fall into the emerging pattern that blurs lines between the so called secular and the saffron camps. The Congress has reasons therefore to go into an overdrive to protect its power turf.

The unfolding campaign depicts the non-Congress parties and their leaders as small time players, who cannot be expected to pursue policies that look beyond their vested interest. And support to them is depicted as sure invitation to the forces of disintegration. In so many words the message is that the nation is safe if it is with the Congress hand.

Surely it goes against the wisdom of the people of the country, who have elected Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Navin Patnaik in Odisha, Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Akilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, Omar Farooq in Jammu and Kashmir, and Jayalalithaa in Tamilnadu. BJP has reasons to be upset with the way its regional satraps – Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan including, are projected as leaders with a narrow vision and with an agenda that expects national interests to be subservient to the regional interests.

Will such a campaign pay dividends? Well, panic reaction is no substitute for good politics both in the short and near terms.

(This commentary first appeared in The Hans India, English daily from Hyderabad on Mar 30, 2013)

Sharad Pawar is the tallest leader in Maharashtra with friends across all parties. He also nurses the prime ministerial ambition. A couple of weeks ago, Pawar again made his ambitions known when he said there is not much of a difference between the Congress led UPA and the BJP led NDA and both follow the same reformist agenda. This ‘uniformity’ has much to do with a Telugu bidda who had stolen the BJP’s economic thunder. But that is not the issue here. The issue is the probability of Sharad Pawar doing business with the saffron camp. In politics anything is possible, and you cannot rule out Pawar at 10 Race Course Road, even if that avatar is to be a Chandrasekhar re-incarnation.

Consider this remark of Pawar which the Mumbai based media interpreted as a snub to his nephew Ajit dada Pawar’s ambitions. In an interview early March, Ajit, deputy chief minister in the Cong-NCP government, said it was a mistake to have offered the CM’s post to the Congress after the 2004 election. He was a contender for the post then. And he had reasons to be bitter because the NCP had won more seats than the Congress.

The Maratha strongman knows his nephew’s goal post. He also knows that there is a rivalry between Supriya Sule, his daughter, and Ajit. He had clearly demarcated each other’s turf – daughter’s in Delhi and nephew’s in Mumbai and decreed that they would compliment each other’s interests.

So, you cannot deem Pawar’s critique as a response to Ajit’s comments on the CM’s post. It has to be seen as a warning to the Grand Old Party that it cannot afford to take him lightly just because he has not been a troublesome ally. He has always been a long term player. That was why he had traded the CM post for key portfolios and more cabinet berths. The deal helped the NCP supremo to preside over a regime that has doled out favours to bring smile to the faithful. Pawar also managed to protect his turf and even expanded it despite the Congress party’s efforts to stymie his stride.

This phase of Pawar politics has coincided with efforts to achieve rapprochement between the two Thackeray’s – Raj of Maharashtra Navniraman Sena (MNS) and Uddhav of Shiv Sena (SS), and between Nitin Gadkari and Gopinath Munde in the BJP.

This churning has not yielded much thus far. All because Raj has no liking for Eknath Khadse, the BJP face in the Mahrashtra assembly. It is said that Khadse raises corruption charges on the floor of the assembly for ‘pecuniary benefits’. The BJP leader denies the allegation; he is willing to face an inquiry by a panel of Congress- NCP and MNS law makers. But the offer has no takers from the MNS, since its plan is to push the Congress to a corner and not allow its government to escape unscathed. This is what suits the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena notwithstanding Raj-Khadse spat. Put differently both the MNS and the BJP are on the same page in so far the big picture is concerned.

Raj is often seen as a person, who doesn’t hesitate to roll back his decisions or promises of favour. If he remains true to this image, as many in SS-BJP combine hope, the Hindutva camp may put its best foot forward in the next battle of ballot. This hope stems from the fact that Raj did not allow his bad blood with Uddhav to come in the way of support Shiv Sena in the Thane Municipal Corporation to keep the Congress at bay.

There is the Narendara Modi – Raj equation. Both are cut in the same demagogue mould and are good friends. BJP hopes to use Modi card to tilt the scales when needed and create the new alliance. There is no gain saying that between Raj and Uddhav, the latter is keen to patch up; he is not pink of health and his second –in- command, Aaditya is no more than a regent.

Now cut to Pawar again. His moves depend very much on the Congress, which is in a mood to commit self-goals as the CBI raids on the homes of Muthuvel Karunanidhi’s heir to the DMK throne, M K Stalin and his family members across Tamilnadu on Thursday showed. The charge that they had 17 luxury cars on which import duties were not paid is old hat. It has been hanging fire since November 2011. From Sonia Gandhi to Manmohan Singh and from Palaniappan Chidambaram to V. Narayanasamy everyone who matters in UPA has proclaimed: “We did not order”.

Their economy on truth brings to mind one of the stories in Paravastu Chinnayasuri’s Neeti Chandrika that a person blinded by arrogance and power cannot see Arunadhati in the sky and cannot smell the smoke from a flame that has been just put out.

It will, needless to say, force the likes of Pawar and Mulayam to avoid pre-poll alliance and thus keep their hopes alive to the dismay of Sonia Congress which is groping for a Plan-B with luck on short-supply, if not on long casual leave, and to the BJP which is in a wait and watch mode taking a sulking Nitish Kumar and a roaring Narendra Modi in its stride.

(This comment first appeared in The Hans India, a daily from Hyderabad on Mar 23)

CONGRESS politicians of Delhi school seldom speak their mind. When they do, they are careful enough to not harm the interests of the high command and at the same time they ensure that their place under the Banyan tree is safe and secure. So much so, the comments of Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit (76), against the Delhi Police are good food for thought.

On the Women’s Day, she lamented that her own daughter felt insecure in Delhi as it became a crime capital of India. She did not field the obvious question – if a CM’s daughter, who enjoys the protective ring that is available to her mother, finds it unsafe, what about ladies from aam aadmi households, who travel by buses and three wheelers, and are, therefore, exposed to the dangers from a Ram Singh lurking in the shadows. None of them would like in their worst dreams even to go through the hell suffered by Nirbhay last year.

Sheila Dixit could have taken up the issue with Police Commissioner but didn’t. Not even with the Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde (71), her contemporary in Congress, to whom the Police Commissioner reports.

What a shame it is for the Congress, which is ruling Delhi and the nation? And which is about to seek a fresh five-year mandate soon.

This is not for the first time that she has been targeting the City police but it is certainly the first time when a chief minister has expressed lack of confidence in the police setup.

She is not new to the corridors of power. She has been the chief minister of Delhi for more than a decade. She may have got the job on the platter because of internal equations in the Congress that had something to do with a Telugu bidda. Like her, all those who were part of that particular equation had found luck smile on them even before the Congress –led UPA happened.

Well, it is a subject matter good enough for a wider public debate in the context of Congress politics after Rajiv Gandhi. When will such a debate take place? It is difficult to crystal gaze.

The celebrations marking the fifteen year rein of Sonia Gandhi (61) as Congress President offer a perfect backdrop to undertake a retrospect and prospect for the 127-year-old organisation that had seen several splits down the years.

Sadly, at the moment the issue appears destined to be a Friday resolution that Parliament sees listed on the agenda but seldom comes up for discussion.

Undeniably, political calculations have pump-primed Sheila-speak against the police. The Nirbhya tragedy had brought people to the streets. Their anger was targeted at the Congress.

Neither Sheila Dixit nor her high command ventured out when the young and old made India Gate the Tahrir Square of Delhi. In fact, both simply vanished from the front lines ignoring the fact that the problem confronting the police was political at the core and not a mere law and order issue.

But then, Sheila is a hardcore Delhiite, who did her apprenticeship under Uma Shankar Dixit, her father –in-law and home minister in the Indira days. She knows the survival mantra. And it’s that the best way to deflect public anger is to speak their language. This is what she has been doing after the lead taken by her lawmaker son, Sandeep Dixit. He did it rather crudely though.

The law of Delhi is such that the Chief Minister has to knock at the doors of the Union Home Minister in case of a dispute or discard with the Lieutenant Governor. Often, the Home Ministry’s bureaucracy sides with the resident of the Rajnivas.

During her spat with the Police Commissioner, the Babus of North Block threw their weight behind the policeman. Rarely the IAS fraternity sides with the IPS but in this instant case they did because of the fear of getting engulfed.

In matters of Delhi police, the chief minister is kept in the loop by way of courtesy or to put more bluntly because of the old bureaucratic mantra of keeping all politicians in good humour. This arrangement suits her, and that was why she did not murmur in protest even once in the past decade plus of her stewardship of Delhi government.

Electoral calculations are what make her turn against the police. She may not be alone in such thinking. Otherwise, fellow Congressmen of Delhi would have made her life miserable. For them, she is an outsider still, as her place of birth is Merut in western UP. They have been tolerating her because she is in the good books of 10 Janpath. Post-Nirbhay, her NGO-centric son, has been made a spokesman of AICC.

So, will Sheila’s gamble pay off? Will people fall a prey to her bait? Difficult to say though from all accounts she knows her onions. Election is a big ticket exercise.

As of now, this much can be said, going by the past precedents.

Chidambaram’s budgets have not won elections. His dream budget made his Prime Minister Deva Gowda dream big and the voters to ignore them both.

With every passing day, it is becoming clear that in his bid to please Sonia Gandhi, who has to win the election for the Congress, and Manmohan Singh, who has to run the government, Chidambaram has ended up serving neither.

An articulate driver of a Maharashtra RTC bus offered an insight into what may be in store during my journey from Nasik to Pune the other day.

Speaking a mixture of Marathi and Hindi, he said, “In Gujarat, the roads are excellent. So are their buses. Our roads are potholed and busses are rickety. There, it is only BJP. Here there is Sena, RPI and BJP. All are just small fray. Congress is corrupt. Inefficient. So, what? People will stamp on the hand once again!”

A TINA factor at work for Sheila and her high command? We will have to wait for a while to know.

( *The comment appeared in The Hans India on Mar 16, 2013)

Like Pontius Pilate, who asked about the Truth, and wouldn’t stay for an answer, A.K. Antony, the Tinopal White Minister, could not let the CBI identify the bribe takers in the Chopper-gate. And opted for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Rs. 362 crore pay offs.

Antony wants to know the truth. “I want to know the truth, I will not run away. I want to punish the guilty (in the Chopper-gate)”, he told the Rajya Sabha on Feb 27. He asked the opposition not to politicise the issue, saying “We thought to satisfy you and, so we thought we can have JPC”.

But the BJP-led opposition is boycotting the JPC. It is second such boycott in our parliamentary history – the first was when Rajiv Gandhi government constituted a JPC to probe the Rs. 64 crore pay offs in the Bofors gun deal in the eighties. B Shankaranand, a Congress senior from Karnataka, headed the all Congress probe. Years later, he had to appear before another JPC as Minister for petroleum in the PV era, when the country was rocked by Harshad Mehta scam.

Probably, the probe into the securities scandal running into Rs. 3, 5000 crore by conservative estimates, was the most transparent inquiry. Ramniwas Mirdha, a Congress veteran from Rajasthan, created many precedents as head of the JPC, largely because the PV government did not generally stand in his way. He summoned Finance Minister of the day. And grilled who is who of the financial sector.

What was more Mirdha kept the media fully informed of the deliberations. The end of the day briefings often took place around midnight to the horror of pink papers which generally go to bed early. So sometimes to oblige them, he used to hold two briefings – one at mid-session and the other at end-session. Mirdha managed to present a near unanimous report which was a big feat given the fact that amongst the JPC members were stalwarts like Jaipal Reddy ( then with the Janata Dal), TN Chaturvedi, ( BJP, a former CAG), and Gurudas Dasgupta, the comrade who can see a phantom even when none exists.

Yet Mirdha’s labours went unnoticed. The government simply ignored them. Same fate was met by the JPC, the Vajpayee government had constituted to probe the Ketan Parekh scam. The two-year-old parliamentary probe into the 2 G Spectrum scam may fare no better though it is still nowhere at the end of its investigations.

By convention and tradition, a JPC can advice, not command the government. Generally the government of the day is loath to set up a JPC and will not mind to let an entire session drowned in a slanging match.

Rajiv Gandhi did not yield to the persistent demand of the opposition for a JPC on Bofors gun deal for months. He did not even entertain the thought of letting an opposition stalwart from Mahaboobnagar, known for his aggressive style, to head the Public Accounts Committee when it was about to ‘pickup’ for examination the CAG report on the Bofors deal. So, the post went to a parliamentarian from a friendly Dravidian party.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stonewalled the opposition demand for JPC probe into spectrum scandal during the winter session in 2010. Only when it became clear that the budget session (Feb-May 2011) too could be a wash out, he announced that ‘in these special circumstances’ his government ‘agrees to setting up of a JPC’.

The Congress has been using all its fire power to resist the summoning of Singh, who, according to the former telecom minister A Raja, was in the ‘loop’. Now Raja himself is keen to appear before the JPC to ‘expose the half-truths’ and to ‘clear his name’. The wish will remain unfulfilled because of the precedent that Public Accounts Committee did not summon him when it examined the spectrum allocation scandal.

JPC, as an extension of parliament, is a forum where members think and act on party-lines. Grandstanding is a natural corollary. Still, the opposition clamours for a JPC for every governmental misdeed under the sun from IPL-gate to Kalmadi-gate. And mostly, the treasury benches reject the demand outright

For a change, the Chopper-gate has seen a role reversal – the opposition doesn’t want but the government has gone ahead with the constitution of JPC. The opposition case rests on the fact that this is a strange case.

The government itself is helpless in getting information from the Italian prosecutors, who have unearthed the bribes in the first place. There is a bribe giver whose identity is known and has been arrested. Quantum of bribe is also known. Identity of the bribe-taker is also known from the Italians though before the eyes of Indian law they only stand as accused till pronounced guilty.

The ‘scam’ broke out in Italy in Feb 2012. Antony ordered a preliminary inquiry by the CBI in Feb 2013. Why did he take so long? Did the delay allow bribe-takers and their patrons the opportunity to destroy every piece of evidence? These are questions for which there are no ready answers.

As the quick recap of JPC history showed, JPC is a talking wonder that goes nowhere except to keep the media happy with few headlines and the opposition occupied with a few talking points. By temperament the opposition should welcome any talking point but in an election year, when time is running out, it craves for something more than talking points. But Antony and his colleagues are willing to play around truth, as they like it.

“Truth”, said Sir Francis Bacon, the Irish born- English Philosopher, who died in disgrace in April 1626, “may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights”. . It is doubtful whether Antony agrees with the creator of empiricism. His quest may let the truth to remain wrapped in a mystery.

( Courtesy The Hans India, which published the article on March 1, 2013)

Cheap consumer goods from the province have flooded Central Asian markets. Regional elites and governments receive generous funding from Beijing, discreet diplomatic support if Russia becomes too demanding and warm expressions of solidarity at a time when much of the international community questions the region’s long-term stability.

China’s influence and visibility is growing rapidly. It is already the dominant economic force in the region and within the next few years could well become the pre-eminent external power there, overshadowing the U.S. and Russia.

Beijing’s primary concern is the security and development of its Xinjiang Autonomous Region, which shares 2,800km of borders with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The core of its strategy seems to be creation of close ties between Xinjiang and Central Asia, with the aim of reinforcing both economic development and political stability. This in turn will, it is hoped, insulate Xinjiang and its neighbours from any negative consequences of NATO’s 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The problem is that large parts of Central Asia look more insecure and unstable by the year.

Corruption is endemic, criminalisation of the political establishment widespread, social services in dramatic decline and security forces weak. The governments with which China cooperates are increasingly viewed as part of the problem, not a solution, as Chinese analysts privately agree. There is a risk that Central Asian jihadis currently fighting beside the Taliban may take their struggle back home after 2014. This would pose major difficulties for both Central Asia and China. Economic intervention alone might not suffice.

There are other downsides to the relationship. Its business practices are contributing to a negative image in a region where suspicions of China – and nationalist sentiments – are already high. Allegations are growing of environmental depredation by Chinese mines, bad working conditions in Chinese plants, and Chinese businessmen squeezing out competitors with liberal bribes to officials. Merited or not, the stereotype of China as the new economic imperialist is taking root.

Beijing is starting to take tentative political and security initiatives in the region, mostly through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which, however, has shown itself ineffective in times of unrest. The other major external players in Central Asia are limited by their own interests or financial capacity. The speed of the U.S. military pull-out from Afghanistan is causing concern in Chinese policy circles, and though Russia claims privileged interests in Central Asia, it lacks China’s financial resources. It is highly likely in the near- to mid-term that China will find itself required to play a larger political role.

China’s well-trained and well-informed Central Asia specialists are among those who fear that a disorderly or too rapid withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan could lead to serious regional unrest – civil strife possibly, the dramatic weakening of central governments, or the escalation of proxy battles among Afghanistan’s neighbours leading to their destabilisation and, most worryingly, Pakistan’s. They are critical of Central Asian leaders’ corruption and lack of competence, as well of the criminalisation of political establishments in the region, and privately express great concern about the long-term prospects for the two weakest states, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. They are as anxious as the West, probably more so, about the region’s vulnerability to a potential well-organised insurgent challenge, from within or without.

This concern has led Chinese policymakers to consider engagement with elements of the Taliban, in an effort to induce them to scale back their perceived support for Uighur separatist groups, such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The depth of Beijing’s worry over possible threats emanating from Afghanistan was demonstrated when it sent its then security chief, Zhou Yongkang, to Kabul in September 2012, just before China’s once-in-a-decade leadership transition. Zhou, the most senior Chinese official to visit in 50 years, pledged reconstruction assistance and limited security help in the form of police training. Though publicly they support Central Asian leaders and express confidence in their political viability, Chinese policy makers have yet to come up with a clear plan to work toward stability in both Afghanistan and Central Asia.

China has unambiguously ruled out any sort of military intervention in its uneasy Central Asia neighbourhood, even in a case of extreme unrest. In the coming years, however, events may force its leadership to make difficult decisions. It will almost surely need to use at least more active diplomatic and economic engagement to grapple with challenges that pose threats to its economic interests and regional stability.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, China and the countries of Central Asia have strengthened ties, initially in the field of economic interchange but increasingly in the political and security spheres.

Energy, precious metals, and other natural resources flow into China from the region. Investment flows the other way, and China is building pipelines, power lines and transport networks linking Central Asia to its north-western province of Xinjiang.

Chuck Hagel, New US Secretary of Defence

And point out: This explains why McCain repeatedly declared Hagel not “Qualified” to be Secretary of Defense, while in the same breath, announced that he would drop his opposition to a vote on Hagel. That meant Hagel’s nomination would be approved because the Democrats control the Senate.

Today, the Republican leadership, led by McConnell, Graham, and McCain, allowed the Senate to vote on Hagel.

They did so even though Hagel refused to turn over critical information about his financial dealings — information that the Senate had previously demanded. These Senators allowed the vote to proceed so even though they asserted that Hagel is unqualified, and they believe that Hagel holds dangerous views on Iran, Israel, and the United States: Remember, Hagel is the man who described the United States as the World’s Bully.

How can they be so critical of Hagel and then vote to allow him to become Secretary of Defense? How can they justify making this man Secretary of Defense?

When Secure America Now confronted Senator McCain, he said that Senate protocol requires him to allow Hagel’s approval. McCain didn’t change his mind even after he was told that the Democrats stopped the nomination of Republican Senator Tower for the exact same position.

But the immigration meeting with Obama seems to explain a lot.

The American people should feel betrayed by all those Senators who supported a vote on Hagel and allowed approval of his nomination. This includes Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Carl Levin and Harry Reid, and Republicans, like Graham, McCain and McConnel.

In dark times such as this, it is incumbent upon us, the “Ground Troops,” to set this country on the right course. During the Hagel and Brennan debates, we showed we can impact the system and slow down the Obama machine. We will continue to do so with your continued support.

Chuck Hagel confirmed as defence secretary

Senate confirmation comes two weeks after Republicans launched filibuster to block nomination for secretary of defence.

The US Senate has voted to confirm Chuck Hagel to be the next US defence secretary.

The vote on Tuesday was 58-41, with four Republicans joining Democrats in backing President Barack Obama’s nominee.

The vote ended a contentious fight over the president’s choice for his second-term national security team.

Hagel will succeed Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who is stepping down after four years as CIA director and Pentagon chief.

The vote came just hours after Republicans dropped their delay and allowed the nomination to move forward.

The Senate voted 71-27 on Tuesday to end the debate and move forward, almost two weeks after Republicans launched a filibuster to block Hagel’s nomination.

It was the first time such a procedural tactic had been used to delay consideration of a nominee for secretary of defence.

Many Republicans have fiercely opposed Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska who angered party leaders when he criticised former President George W Bush’s handling of the Iraq war.

Some have also raised questions about whether Hagel is sufficiently supportive of Israel or tough enough on Iran.

But Democrats stood together for Hagel, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran.

There are also instances in which fire is used as a weapon in a terrorist attack. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and embassy communications officer Sean Smith, the two diplomats killed in the attack on the U.S. office in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, did not die from gunfire or even rocket-propelled grenade strikes but from smoke inhalation. This fact was not lost on the U.S. Department of State Accountability Review Board that investigated the Benghazi attack. In an interview published by Reuters on Feb. 24, former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, the head of the Accountability Review Board, said more attention should be paid to the threat fire poses to diplomatic posts.

Fire can be deadly and destructive. But whether a fire is intentionally set, as in the Benghazi example above, or is the result of an accident or negligence, there are some practical steps individuals can take to protect themselves.

Fire as a Weapon

The use of fire as a weapon, especially against diplomatic facilities, is not new. It was seen in the November 1979 sacking and burning of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and in the April 1988 mob and arson attack against the U.S. Embassy annex in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. In February 2008, the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, was heavily damaged when a mob lit its lobby on fire. More recently, on Sept. 14, 2012, three days after the Benghazi attack, millions of dollars’ worth of damage was done at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, after a mob set outbuildings and vehicles ablaze. Fires set by demonstrators also caused extensive damage to the adjacent American school.

Fire has been used to attack non-diplomatic facilities as well. During the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, the group of attackers holed up in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel started fires in various parts of the hotel. Anarchists and radical environmental and animal rights activists have also conducted arson attacks against a variety of targets, including banks, department stores, the homes and vehicles of research scientists and even a ski resort.

Fire has also been a weapon frequently mentioned by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in its longstanding efforts to encourage Muslims living in the West to conduct simple attacks. In an interview featured in the first edition of Inspire magazine, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Nasir al-Wahayshi encouraged would-be jihadists to burn down forests and buildings as a way to strike terror into the hearts of their adversaries. This theme was expanded upon in Inspire magazine’s ninth edition, which actually contained a photo tutorial on how to construct timed incendiary devices as well as a fatwa noting that it was religiously permissible to light forest fires as an act of war. It is suspected that Palestinian groups have also been responsible for a number of fires in Israel and the West Bank.

But fire is not a weapon to be used against only buildings and forests — it can also be used to attack transportation targets. In March 2008, a Uighur separatist attempted to light a fire in the restroom of a China Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi to Beijing using two soft drink cans filled with gasoline that she had smuggled onto the flight. Fire is extremely dangerous aboard aircraft because of the oxygen-rich environment, the sensitive nature of avionic controls, the presence of thousands of gallons of jet fuel and the toxic smoke that results from burning plastics and other materials that make up a plane. Examples of deadly fires aboard aircraft include the September 1998 incident involving Swissair Flight 111, in which all 229 people aboard were killed after the crew was overcome by smoke, and the May 1996 ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades. In a case similar to the one at hand, a June 1983 fire that started in the restroom of Air Canada Flight 797 resulted in the deaths of 23 of the 46 passengers on board. Autopsies showed that most of them died as a result of smoke inhalation.

Trains have also been targeted for arson. In August 2006, an attack against two German trains failed when the timed incendiary devices placed onboard failed to ignite. A February 2007 attack against a train in India proved far more deadly. Two timed incendiary devices placed aboard the Samjhauta Express killed 68 people and injured another 50. Two additional unignited devices were later found in other cars aboard the train. Had they functioned properly, the death toll would have been much higher.

Incendiary devices are not only quite deadly if properly employed, they also have an advantage over explosive devices in that they can be constructed from readily available materials such as gasoline and kerosene. Even the aluminum powder and iron oxide required to manufacture a more advanced incendiary compound such as thermite can be easily obtained or even produced at home.

Another consideration is that quite often other forms of attacks, such as those using explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades or even tracer ammunition, can spark fires. Many of the victims of the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings were affected not by the bombs’ blast effect but by the smoke from the resultant fires.

Precautions

In addition to the threat of fire as a weapon or resulting from another form of attack, many deadly fires result each year from accidents or negligence. Such fires are deadly enough in the United States and Europe, where there are strict fire codes, but their impact is often magnified in less-developed countries, where fire codes are nonexistent or poorly enforced. For example, while sprinkler systems are mandatory for hotels in the United States, in many parts of the world they are not required.

When I was working on protective details overseas, I learned that it is not uncommon to find items stored in emergency stairwells, leaving them obstructed or sometimes impassable. It is also not unusual to find fire doors that have been chained shut due to the criminal threat.

One thing that can be done to mitigate the threat from fire is to check emergency exits to ensure that they are passable. This applies not only to hotels but also to apartment and even office buildings. In the August 2011 Casino Royale attack in Monterrey, Mexico, the attackers ordered the occupants out of the building before dousing it with gasoline and lighting it on fire, but 52 people died in the incident because they were trapped inside a building by a fire exit that had been chained and locked shut.

While we recommend that travelers staying at hotels overseas should attempt to stay above the second floor for security reasons, we also recommend that they not stay above the sixth floor so that they will be within range of most fire department rescue ladders. We also recommend checking that functional and tested fire extinguishers and fire hoses are present.

In fires, smoke inhalation is a huge problem. According to studies, it is the primary cause of fire deaths and accounts for some 50-80 percent of all deaths from indoor fires. While this is somewhat obvious in confined spaces such as an aircraft fuselage or a subway tunnel, it also applies to buildings. Even buildings that are constructed of concrete or cinderblock and would therefore seem to be resistant to the effects of fire can serve to confine smoke to deadly levels. The U.S. office in Benghazi is a very good recent example. Video of the building after the attack showed that the fire had not badly damaged the building’s structure itself; what killed Stevens and Smith was the smoke.

As Stratfor has noted for many years now, smoke hoods are a very important piece of safety equipment and should be part of everyone’s personal safety plan. Smoke hoods can be carried in a purse or briefcase and can provide the wearer with 15-30 minutes of safe air to breathe. This period of time can make a world of difference to a person caught in a burning building, subway tunnel or aircraft and attempting to escape to fresh air.
Due to past fire incidents on aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration mandates that airlines furnish a smoke hood for each crew member on commercial flights. They do not provide smoke hoods for each passenger, although high-end executive aircraft normally do. Commercial passengers who would like access to a smoke hood in the case of a fire need to carry their own. Another useful tool in such situations is a small, high-intensity flashlight that can help you find your way through the smoke or dark once you have donned your smoke hood.

Fire is a potentially deadly weapon, one that should not be forgotten, but steps can be taken to mitigate the danger it poses.

(*republished with permission of Stratfor.)

Meher Baba in 1930s

By MEHERWAN JESSAWALA
As a member of the Publications and Copyrights Committee of the AMBPPCT, I am putting before you the reasons I feel that there is a need for publishing authorised editions of Baba’s unpublished words in the present time. I use the word ‘authorised’ not in the egotistic sense. We are not authorised to authorise! Baba is the Author and will ever remain so.

All we are trying to do with our limited human nature and intelligence is to keep the published product as close to the original as possible, while correcting grammar and spelling, and where possible filling in blanks. In that sense, we are working to preserve the authenticity and the accuracy of Baba’s words for posterity. We are creating a benchmark which will be what the AMBPPCT could call an “authorised edition”, as opposed to other free-lance interpretations of the same manuscripts.

I have been with Meher Baba from the time I was born. Due to His Grace, I was fortunate to have lived for a time with Him as part of His men and women mandali, and also later, to have spent much time in His presence. I was given unique opportunities to observe how Baba Himself dealt with the issues and questions surrounding the publication of His words. He was very particular about the actual editing process, and in fact Baba had said, “Future editors will come who will be able to edit my works, because I want My words to be properly edited.” Even during His life He asked Don Stevens to re-edit The Discourses because the language had become archaic.

After Baba dropped His body, the Trust took on the Olympian task of going through the many stores of documents and undertook the responsibility of putting His words before His lovers and the world at large as authentically and accurately as was possible. Many of His mandali devoted time and effort to this work – Mani S Irani, Rano Gayley, Adi K Irani, Feramroz Workingboxwalla, Eruch Jessawala, Bal Natu, Bhau Kalchuri among them – as did many of His Western and Eastern lovers who had been with Him and had knowledge of the events and circumstances surrounding some of the works. Among those are Ivy O’Duce, Elizabeth Patterson, Kitty Davy, Bill LePage, Darwin Shaw, Margaret Craske, Delia DeLeon, to name but a few.

With the formation of the Archives Committee, all Baba’s writings and correspondence which was held by the Trust at the time was scanned, then safely stored. A lot of previously unpublished material was found, bringing forth works such as “In God’s Hand” and “Infinite Intelligence”. I was involved in the work of bringing the material found into a form and shape which, while being grammatically correct, was also readable by anyone who chose to read the books. Translations, interpretations of charts and diagrams, editing the words to make them read easily (some of the original sentences were abbreviated) was done over and over again because each of us who worked on the manuscript was aware of the enormous responsibility we held and didn’t want to publish a work that in any way distorted or made ambiguous Baba’s words.

However, edit the manuscript we did. Because any editorial process is by its nature subjective and has to rely on the slant put on the work by the one doing the editing, there were several editors working simultaneously, to minimise this subjective interpretation. And to make it totally transparent, the original was scanned and put out on the Internet, so that anyone could read and cross-check to ensure that authenticity.

At the present time we are working on editing The Tiffin Lectures. These are a series of informal talks given by Baba some time in 1925 to 1926. The manuscript we had was full of blanks and the source material was not available until recently, when Chanji’s diaries became available. Other sources too were found outside of the Trust Archives. E.g. Chris & Chris Pearson had a manuscript which had a lot of the blanks filled in, probably from Filis Fredrick (late editor of The Awakener). We are now working towards bringing all these sources together and putting forth a book that is worthy of our Beloved.

There is no perfection except with our Lord Meher Baba. We do not say that the “authorised edition” of His words will be so. It will be coloured with our limited understanding and our personal experiences, but it will be done with the heart and mind focused on Him, and with His guidance we will succeed. As more and more of the people who knew Baba in His physical advent die, it is necessary to have people who have made it their life work to study His works, and who have talked to and been guided by His close ones and those who lived their lives under Baba’s supervision. They in turn will pass on the knowledge they were given and their own additions to this, to those yet to come.

Should we skip this meticulous and time-consuming process and just directly publish the manuscripts as is? It is only my opinion, but I do not feel that this is the way to go about publication.

(* Text of the written speech for a function on Avataric legacy
programme held in Meherabad on Feb 15, 2013)

Arun Jaitley is an interesting leader. He is interesting not because he is not cut in the Laloo Prasad mode. He is well read and very articulate. Hearing him hold forth for BJP in the days when the party was a marginal player in Delhi’s power circuit was a delight just as it was a pain to attend the briefings of his senior Jaswant Singh. Unlike Singh, he had cut his teeth in student politics. His biggest plus is the fact that he is an unadulterated Delhiite.

There is an old world charm in Jaitley-speak though he is a product of ABVP politics, like Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, his contemporary, whose paronomasia invites brickbats and bouquets in equal measure. So much so, when Jaitely entered into a public spat with Justice Markandeya Katju, it sounded strange.

A practising lawyer locking horns with a former apex court judge is an unusual spectacle. More unusual, of course, was Congress party’s Digvijay Singh quickly rallying in support of Katju.

Two things have happened as a result. One the issue became politicised with the BJP and Congress locked in a war of words. Two the basic issue raised by Jaitley has been sidelined particularly with the sections of Talking Shops pitching their pitch a little too high to grab eye balls.

Established names in the media, not all, but a majority, certainly, have not helped matters either. Their penchant to look at the Jaitely –Katju spat through political prism has something to do with a garrulous Gujarati, who is on a political mission to find answer to the question – Koham (Who am I) in time for the next national ballot.

Frankly, I don’t hold a brief for the BJP leader. Nor do I hold a brief for Justice Katju either. But my question is can there be no space for an exchange of ideas- big and small without making the ideas a hostage to politics.

From Itanagar to Bhavnagar and from Sopore to Tuticorin, we come across the same sad spectacle – politicised discourse. For the ‘aam aadmi’ engaged in a daily struggle for existence politics matters very little till someone intrudes and touches raw emotions with rhetoric.

Our politicians, irrespective of their labels, are full time practitioners of the art of the possible. So, there is nothing wrong in their jumping into the fray with or without provocation. But should we allow them to obfuscate issues with an eye on the elusive x- factor.

Yes, there are no ready answers to this question which has been before us from late sixties when we had a brief tryst with coalitions and ‘Aya Ram- Gaya Ram’ politics in the Ganga-Yamuna belt. The politics of untouchability ushered in by Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet have erected firewalls; this has largely contributed to making a dialogue between the ruling and opposition parties a thing of the past. Today both sides speak through the media missing no opportunity to spite at each other.

From Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao, neither political moorings nor day-to-day political compulsions stood in the way of personal equations. It is not the case any longer as the Jaitley-Katju spat shows.

Katju is not the first former Supreme Court judge to head the Press Council of India (PCI) with its office located very near a sports stadium. He will not be the last one to head this toothless wonder despite its quasi-judicial status. But, he is certainly the first PCI chairman, who is in the headlines with his ‘opinion pieces’.

Now why he is offering his comments, mostly unsolicited, and why the media is giving him space are not germane to this column. The focus here is why should he rush to the press with his ‘op-eds’.

It appears as though he wants to mold public opinion, like the newspapers whose output comes under the PCI purview. Otherwise, Justice Katju would not have written in The Hindu against the Gujarat Chief Minister. And concluded that he found it hard to believe Narendra Modi had no hand in the 2002 riots.

Not only Justice Katju but many people with a thinking cap, do find it hard to believe that the Chief Minister was unaware of what was happening, for instance, at Gulburg Society, a Muslim housing complex, in Ahmadabad or about the Naroda Patiya massacre. Also most of us feel frustrated at the slow march of the wheels of justice in our country.

Neither of these two sentiments should blind us to the reality that the law of the land is finally catching up with the guilty for the post-Godhra mayhem. Justice Katju was an insider to the judicial system. As such, he should feel elated that his fraternity in Gujarat is making India proud whereas the national capital is still hanging its head in shame as the faces behind the 1984 riots are yet to be unmasked.

Now whether Justice Katju’s remarks/observations are reckless or whether he is a megalomaniac is a matter of perception. Also, whether the PCI chairman was right in advising Jaitely to take ‘sanyas’ from politics and whether he was right in his run-ins with Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Mamata ‘Didi’ in West Bengal.

The fact of the matter is a retired Supreme Court judge, who is heading a quasi-judicial body, has entered political space with his op-eds. Is this fair and proper? It is in finding answers to this question we can hope to carve out space for a healthy, unadulterated dialogue, which is the need of the hour. This question is important because we have a host of quasi-judicial bodies in the country.

Equally important is another question that has come upfront with the ‘tapping’ of Arun Jaitley’s mobile phones. A Delhi policeman is held guilty along with his detective friend, who once helped the police and intelligence agencies, trace Afzal Guru, and other suspects in the 2001 parliament attack case. Yes, an op-ed piece on Jaitley’s tryst with mobile freedom will be interesting to read.

(The writer can be reached at mramarao2008@gmail.com)